Leverage: Review of Burk & Lemley, \u27The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It\u27

Dan L. Burk and Mark A. Lemley’s “The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It” (The University of Chicago Press, 2009) is valuable for anyone interested in patent law. The book serves two goals. First, it suggests how patent reform in the United States can best be accomplished: not through Congressional amendment of the patent statute, but by judicial implementation of industry-specific reforms, in interpreting the existing act. Some jurisdictions, such as India, already differentiate between industrial sectors more explicitly in patent policy than the United States. Second, of interest to patent law worldwide, the book provides a clear and concise explanation of the many applications of economics to patent law and theory over the past few decades, especially with respect to how the diverse forms in innovation in different industries are reflected in patent economics, and could bolster patent reform